TRAINING FOR THE FIGHT

On August 27, UNICEF's Communications for Development Specialist, Adolphus Scott, and Child Protection Section Officer, Hawa Page, travelled to West Point, a slum community in Monrovia that has been hard-hit by the Ebola outbreak. During their visit, Adolphus and Hawa trained adolescent girls from UNICEF-support girls’ clubs to raise local awareness of Ebola signs, symptoms and preventive measures. Boys and community leaders were also included in the training. The visit occurred just one week after the Government of Liberia quarantined West Point, where on 15 August, some residents looted a community-established Ebola holding center, sending over a dozen suspected Ebola patients fleeing. The quarantine was lifted on 31 August, but the threats to West Point posed by Ebola still stand. The girls, boys and community leaders trained by UNICEF will play a key role in educating their families, friends and neighbours about how to protect themselves from Ebola, and what to do if they or someone they know exhibit signs of the disease.